"That's a statue," someone whispered.
Louise went up to her newly summoned familiar and ran a hand along the surface. It was indeed a solid stone statue, depicting an angelic figure of some sort covering its face. "Professor…?"
"Perhaps it's some sort of… gargoyle? Or golem?" the man suggested.
Louise peered as close to it as she could, not seeing any identifying marks. "Maybe." She completed the ritual, and runes appeared on the statue's arm. It did not move in the slightest.
Louise tossed and turned. No matter what she did, she couldn't get it to move. Professor Chevreuse had even come out and cast some Triangle-class earth spells, only to declare her 'familiar' immovable.
Now, let it not be said that Louise was disappointed. An immovable statue was certainly a better familiar than… say, nothing at all. But she was frustrated. The moment that was supposed to make or break her status as a mage came, and the powers-that-be shrugged and answered ambiguously.
Was it really too much to get a clear answer? Was she a mage or not?!
There was a heavy knock. Louise jumped out of bed and landed on her face. Groaning and rubbing her cheek, she stumbled over to the door. Who could it be?
The statue stood there, as if it had pressed up against her door. She shrieked and backed up to her bed, but the statue didn't move. After a few deep breaths, she stood up and approached it again. Was this some sort of prank? Perhaps with the… explosive nature of her summoning, someone had snuck in a fancy golem? And now they were trying to torment her?
Footsteps echoed down the hall. "Louise, are you okay?! What happ-" Kirche stopped right outside. "That's… freaky."
"Yeah! Freaky!" Louise said, more than a little heat in her voice.
"So I guess your familiar came up to meet you?"
"Is that what happened?! I'm not sure! Maybe this is just another one of your 'pranks!' Fool the Zero into thinking she has a chance, that she's a real mage after all?!"
"Wha- no! Louise, I'd never-"
"Save it! I've had enough of you, I've had enough of this school, I've had enough of you all dashing everything I've dreamed of into pieces! Just leave and take that blasted thing with you!"
Louise slammed the door and went back to bed.
Kirche, on the other hand, was reported missing by Tabitha the very next morning.
This wasn't a prank.
One-by-one, over the next few weeks, Louise's tormentors disappeared. And it seemed every time she wasn't looking, the statue moved.
Sometimes, it appeared outside her room. Sometimes, next to her seat in her classroom. Once, it had somehow moved just behind her while she was alone in the baths. She'd felt especially vulnerable then, without her wand and naked under its gaze. Metaphorically, of course, since it covered its eyes. That didn't mean she hadn't felt its eyes roving over her.
She'd taken to requesting a maid to keep watch over her, much to the mockery of her remaining peers. The social cost didn't matter though, and Siesta was sweet enough that the insults almost didn't affect her. Thank Brimir for that maid. She had taken to comforting Louise whenever something particularly disturbing happened, which was more often than not now.
One day, something different happened: Louise got a letter not from her family. The contents were rather vague, but alluded to the situation. The disappearances, her familiar, statues that moved when unseen. Louise immediately packed up several bags, grabbed Siesta, and headed off.
What she found was not something she expected. At the enclosed address was a lesser noble house that seemed ready to mourn. Louise was led around from person to person until she finally came to the head of household.
The elderly woman was obviously sick with something. Once-lustrous red hair had turned ragged, and the tired look in her eyes said much. Louise had seen a similar look in her great-aunt's eyes before she died.
"Leave us," the old woman said, and three water mages left without question. "Hello again, Valliere."
"Again?"
"Don't recognize me?"
Louise shook her head. "Should I have?"
The old woman chuckled. "My fire may be burning out, but you are just as bright and passionate as I remember."
…
It could not be. But there was only one person who said things like that.
"Z-Zerbst?"
"Please, old friend. Call me Kirche."
Louise took a step back. "N-no… I… We aren't… weren't… friends."
To her surprise, Kirche's expression was filled with uncountable regrets. "I know that now. I had a lot of time to think about what I did to you. Decades upon decades to puzzle together my failings. I was so very stupid. I wanted to be your friend, and I thought… I thought you wanted a friendly rivalry. The barbs… the social maneuvering… I thought that's just how our friendship was to be. So stupid." Her eyes closed and a single tear fell down her cheek.
Louise had nothing to say. Such raw, open emotion was foreign to her. Instead, she pulled up a chair and sat down. "You're… you're really Kirche?"
"I was. I took another name when I disappeared, but I never forgot who I was."
"What… happened to you?"
"I remember that night. I heard you scream, so I rushed to help you, and found your statue outside your door."
"That was only a week ago!"
A bitter smile crossed Kirche's lips. "A week for you, sixty years for me. You shut your door in my face. Told me to go away. I was looking at your familiar, and… I blinked. Just for a moment, see, but it was enough. I blinked, and I opened my eyes to find myself in 6187."
"Almost sixty years ago," Louise muttered, horrified.
"It was pretty confusing, but not all bad. I studied a lot harder than I did back at the Academy, trying to find a way back. Found a husband, lost said husband to the war in Germania. Killed by my own family." Her laugh was dark. "I was pregnant at the time. My daughter was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, and I have never seen anything more beautiful since. She was about your age when she died. Consumption, you know?"
Louise sat, just letting the feelings hit her as she listened.
"It was like no matter what I did, I had no affect on the world around me. But I did learn things. Things about your familiar."
"W-what about my familiar?"
"Founder Brimir called them the False Angels. They're not statues. They're only like that when someone watches them. If no one does… they move. Impossibly fast. Even if you just blink, you're done for. And they have a very effective way of killing someone."
Louise shifted uncomfortably. "But you're not dead?"
"Am I not?" Kirche gestured at herself. "This is my deathbed. The healers tell me I have anywhere from ten minutes to a few days left. There isn't much better way to kill someone than zap them back in time and let them live to death."
"…Why didn't you try to talk to me sooner?"
"Do you remember ever receiving any letters before now?"
"No…?"
"Then I would never have sent you any letters until now. I told you. I had no affect on anything ever. I couldn't change a single thing. The past is, and was, fixed. It wasn't until the present caught up that I could call for you. I'm… I'm sorry I couldn't be there."
Louise grabbed her hand, held it tightly. "It's… it's okay. You're here now."
Kirche smiled sadly. "The others… Montmorency, Guiche, Malicorne, they wanted to be here too. But when they found they couldn't… They asked me to give you their regards, and their apologies."
When had she started crying? Louise shuddered. "They… they didn't hate me?"
"They could get angry at you, but none of them hated you. And with so much time to think… we could only forgive you. We… were… just… children."
"Kirche?" Louise watched in panic as Kirche's breaths became raspy. "Kirche?!"
"It's… time…" Breath. "Come… closer…"
Louise leaned close.
"Need… to know… You are… Void Mage… Brimir's… Heir…"
Louise pushed that to the back of her mind, whispering frantically. "I don't care. I don't! Not when you're…!"
Kirche smiled one last time. "I'm happy… to be… your friend… Louise."
Louise's friend died with a smile on her face.
The world continued as if nothing had happened.
It wasn't good enough. Not for Kirche. Louise found her mind running over every action, reevaluating everything Kirche had said and done in the light of someone who had wanted to be a friend but was very bad at showing it.
There was a lot. So much. Compliments she'd thought were sarcastic. Checking to see if she was okay. Even the occasional gift, if backhanded and passive-aggressive.
There was only one option now. Louise found herself knocking on a door.
"Yes?" asked the girl who opened it.
"I saw her. Kirche."
"Where," Tabitha asked insistently.
"She's… she's…" Louise found herself explaining the encounter, every last word engraved in her memory.
Tabitha listened quietly.
With righteous fury, they plotted.
One way or another, the False Angel would pay.
A/N: Louise summons a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who.
One thing I always found myself asking in regards to them was: Okay, the Weeping Angels feed on the potential from the people they sent back. But it's not like the victims couldn't just… live their lives? Some of them could even take advantage of the displacement, using knowledge of future events, investing in companies they knew would be successful, avoiding problems like WWII and the like.
But none of the victims of time-trapping we see in Doctor Who canon actually do this, even though there's nothing really stopping them. Which suggests something is stopping them.
If the Angels really, truly feed on the potential future of their victims… Wouldn't that mean that there isn't a potential future for them in the past? If they could change things, it wouldn't be so bad. "Darn. Stuck in 1930. Guess I'll kill Hitler!"
By robbing them of their futures, or in other words their potential to affect events around them until the day they die, suddenly their method of killing becomes a lot more terrifying. It's not that you've been sent back in time (even if that might suck), it's that you've become an observer. Able to watch, but never able to make a difference.
Nothing you do will ever matter. And for most people I'd say that's a much more terrifying thought.
